Letters

Q&A

Q: I'm building a house in North Carolina, which has a mixed-humid climate (climate zone 3). My local building inspector - backed up by his boss - requires a polyethylene vapor retarder on the interior side of cellulose-insulated walls. My insulation contractor says that interior polyethylene is...

Q: After the tile installer left one of our recent projects, we found dried epoxy grout on some of the bathroom's fixtures. He also failed to remove the grate from the shower drain when he grouted and now excess epoxy clogs the drain and fills in the screw slots, making it impossible to remove the...

Q: Instead of glue and nails, my framing subcontractor used screws to fasten the sheathing to the I-joists of a new 14-foot-wide addition. While there are no interior walls bearing on the floor system and no excessive notching in the I-joist flanges - and the joists fall well within the APA's...

On the Job

Business

All clients come to the table with a set of unspoken expectations, some of which they may not even be aware of. Because these assumptions will inform every decision they make, it's important to bring them into the open and prioritize them early on. This will help you decide whether you and the...

Legal

My husband, my brother-in-law, and I were sitting around reminiscing about construction slowdowns we've been through. (What can I say? We're old.) My brother-in-law talked about the '70s, when to avoid laying off his crew he sent them to his mother's house to paint. He was hoping that by the time...

Kitchen & Bath

Toolbox

Backfill

When a local remodeler approached me about reproducing five porch posts for a 140-year-old house in Boulder, Colo., my interest was piqued. Despite the fact that I didn't have a lathe — much less one that could turn 10-foot posts — I took the contract, figuring I could build my own to do the job.

Other Articles

Q. In New York state, we built a pergola (a type of garden trellis) using 8x8 pressure-treated posts set 4 feet into the ground. During the first winter, the frost lifted the posts. What should we have done to keep the posts from heaving?